Friendship
by Meg2
Summary: A Sookie and Pam short story. Takes place after "From the Beginning" and "Sookie's Revelation" but before "The Gamble" Spoilers for all 8 books and for "Fairy Dust" from the anthology "Powers of Detection"
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

A/N- This story takes place in mid February, after "From the Beginning" and "Sookie's Revelation" but before "The Gamble. This story was started around the same time as "Sookie's Revelation" and like that story, I'm just not happy with this one. But it's time to move on. There's stuff in here that you'll need for later.

**Friendship**

I.

Pam and I were sitting in the Starbucks off of I-20, chatting while I finished my latte and she her True Blood. I had needed some warmth and a shot of caffeine to keep me alert as we headed to Monroe. It was a cold February night.

Pam was wearing a pink cashmere cowl-necked sweater and a pair of black jeans that had a sheen to the fabric. She wore low-heeled boots and looked really lovely. I'd put on a cranberry red marl Aran-style sweater with a pretty notched collar, a pair of regular jeans, dark red pumps and I was wearing the coat Eric gave me a year ago. We were both wearing makeup and looking pretty fine, especially considering how cold it was outside. Guys would give us the eye as they walked by and every once in a while Pam would flash some fang to make them jump and make herself chuckle. She was incorrigible but it was so funny to see how much she enjoyed herself doing it. We were, however, having a serious conversation.

"So you won't ever, if you don't have to, correct?" she asked me looking me directly in the eye.

"Pam, I'm not going intruding into your mind, okay? Geez Louise. I already apologized and it's not like I was taking extensive notes, okay?" I said in a low voice.

"I have to say, Sookie, much as I care for you as a friend, I find it offensive and I think it's going to cause a lot of trouble if you're not careful. You say you can shield from it, but really, I hope you understand how dangerous this could be. I don't like it. It upsets me. No matter what Eric says about it."

"Pam, do we really have to talk about it here, in Starbucks? If you want to talk about it, can't we wait until we're back in the car?" I said, again in the low voice. I was frankly always worried about anyone else, another single soul, finding out how much my telepathic ability had recently expanded. Talking about it in a public place seemed like a bad idea.

"So I'm telling you that you upset me and your response is that you want to be in a smaller, more confined space with me? I really can see sometimes why Eric is so endlessly amused with you, Sookie," she said with genuine mischief in her eyes and a smirk on her beautiful face.

I sighed. Clearly, Pam was upset, but not all _that_ upset. "Yes, Pam, I'm so amusing. He just laughs and laughs," I said shaking my head.

I finished my latte and didn't say anything further. We rose to leave, disposing of our trash and headed out the door into the bracing cold.

Once in the car, I buckled up and prepared myself for the far briefer drive to Monroe than would have been the case if I were at the steering wheel. Ever notice that vampires drive precisely as if they're immortal? Even if their passengers are not?

Pam looked at me with a merry spark in her eyes and said "Let's see what this car can do, shall we? We'll say it's our due, considering."

Eric had enlisted Pam to accompany me on a trip Monroe, to Hooligans, a strip club owned by my distant cousins Claudine and Claude Crane. Why Eric thought I would need a vampire bodyguard to go do something for fairies is beyond me. When Claudine called me in the afternoon and asked me for a favor, I said yes, even though it was my day off. Claudine, though my cousin, is kind of like my fairy godmother. She's looked after me countless times and most recently had gotten me out of a magical funk that had had me terribly depressed. The less said about that, the better. But now, for a change, she was asking for my help. It was only the second time she'd done so, and I really felt I had to help her out.

Pam raced down I-20 toward Monroe at a rather alarming speed. I was clutching the seat and center console of the corvette, while Pam chuckled. She was the vampire but _I_ was probably the one looking very pale about now.

"So Sookie," she said with her voice raised slightly as she shifted gears while weaving in and out of some late evening traffic. "Exactly how did you think it wouldn't be noticed?"

I sighed. Pam could be like a dog with a bone for some things.

"Pam, I didn't _know_ if it would be noticed. I wasn't doing it deliberately at first and then when I realized what was going on, I tried to be careful. Bill noticed it, but I'd had Bill's blood, so I thought, I mean _we_ thought, that it was just something that he picked up on because of that."

"It feels like someone moving things around in your room, quietly, when you're trying to sleep. At first I just couldn't believe it. It's definitely noticeable."

"Well it's noticeable to you, but I can assure you it isn't noticeable to everyone."

"Oh? Do tell!" she said with an interested glance. Giving me that glance meant that she had her eyes off the road while we drove at about 80 mph.

"Pam, I beg of you. Could you _please_ just drive the car?" It occurred to me that Eric had put his beloved human, his child, and his car in a precarious situation. So much for strategic risk analysis, Mr. Northman. I should have asked him if I could get Tray to go with me. Yeah, right. Like that would fly, Sookie, I said to myself.

"I'm having _fun_ Sookie! I hardly ever get a chance to borrow it. I'm a good driver, and I want to know what dirt you have. Were these other vampires in the bar? I mean at the very least, I should know because if they are so stupid they don't feel you tramping around in their minds, they bear watching."

I hesitated. I wanted her to be safe. I could see her point from the standpoint of knowing who's got your back. Clearly, you'd want to know if someone was inattentive to the details.

"Okay, the only other people I've read a bit have been Clancy, Felicia and that dancer Kira, the one will all the tattoos and piercings. I didn't try Clancy for long because I know he doesn't like me much and I just felt it was a bad idea. I wasn't there long enough to tell if he felt it. Felicia I could read really easily. And Kira is, well, let's just say Kira is very occupied with her own thoughts and wouldn't notice much. Oh, and I tried Thalia once but she seemed like she felt it right away so I stopped immediately and made myself scarce."

"And?"

"And what?" I replied.

"And what did you _hear?"_ she said impatiently.

"Just totally innocent stuff, Pam! I wasn't looking for your super secret vampire shit, okay? Geez…"

"But seriously, Sookie, what _did_ you hear?" she said more gently. "Is it like what you hear from humans?"

Ah. So Pam was really curious, after all was said and done, about how it all sounded in my mind.

"Well, humans are all different, Pam. Sometimes it's like someone reading from a book because the thoughts are clear and well formed and the person is talking out loud in their own head. Other times it's more like a stream of images. Some people don't even really think in words. With Weres I get mostly images, although some (here I thought of Quinn) are really quite good at projecting strong thoughts and ideas. Usually, before, I just saw vampires as a sort of void space. Like something that should be there, wasn't there, so you knew a vampire was there. Now it's more like a combination of that and hearing the odd thought and seeing some images. It's like I can string it together and make a movie in my mind."

"How hard is it to read a vampire mind?"

I hesitated. The truth of the matter is that if I'd had Eric's blood recently, not hard at all. But did Pam really need to know that? Probably not. I thought she was already uneasy enough with the whole thing. And I was not much better off than she was on the topic, I thought, honestly.

"Sometimes it takes work to make sense of the thoughts, Pam. More work than with a human, or some Weres."

This was true. Some of the things I'd seen in Eric's mind were pretty hard to comprehend.

Bill had told me he knew, before he actually told Eric (unlike Pam). Eric had not been pleased when he found out that Bill told me first. Since then, Bill and I had been practicing to see if I could read his directed thoughts. He'd come into Merlotte's and try to communicate silently. Eventually, we'd practiced to see if Eric could detect Bill literally beaming me thoughts. That had the potential to be a useful skill according to Eric. Eric could figure it out, or get the fact that Bill was talking to me in his mind, about half the time. Discouraging, I'd thought, but they'd thought it showed great promise. I didn't want to think too hard about what kind of information I might be "sent" and what I might be doing with it for them. Frankly, the whole thing worried me, even if Eric thought it had "great potential".

Eric practiced thinking _at _me regularly. In fact, just this evening, when I was refusing to have anyone accompany me to Hooligans, I got a wonderful blast of "_Oh yes you __**will**__…"_ along with a pleasant refusal, out loud, to even let me out of the house for the night if I didn't do as I was asked and accept Pam's company to keep an eye on me. Well, _that_ was a tempting offer, I'd thought, with a naughty smile. And how would he keep me busy in the house so I couldn't leave? Hmmmmm. But… I really owed Claudine. I supposed I should be glad I could go to the grocery store alone.

I chuckled to myself about Pam. Considering it our due, indeed. Poor Pam, having to be out of Fangtasia for the night, to go to the fairies' strip club.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

A/N- This story takes place in mid February, after "From the Beginning" and "Sookie's Revelation" but before "The Gamble."

**Friendship**

II.

We arrived at Hooligan's shortly after 8 pm. I was still stuck on the fact that Pam had managed to cut an hour and a half drive time down to a mere 50 minutes. And no speeding ticket, to boot. I'd felt like my hair ought to be flying out behind me, even though the hard top was on the car.

The parking lot was packed. Amazing, considering it was a Wednesday night, I thought. But I guess strip clubs can pack them in no matter what day of the week it is. This was going to be the first time I'd ever set foot into one, so what did I know? The last time I'd done a favor for Claudine, I'd gone to their home.

I was a little concerned about how I was going to do this. Having Pam around Claudine and Claude was not going to be easy. Vamps can just barely keep it together around fairies. It's like having a pile of heroin in front of an addict.

Pam seemed to pick up on my edginess.

"I have to go in with you, you know. Eric said I had to stay with you. I'll keep a slight distance from them, but I have to stay with you, Sookie. I'll be good. Don't worry."

I nodded with a slight frown. It wasn't her fault, I reminded myself. It was Eric's. And mine for buckling so easily, of course.

Claudine, who was wearing one of her usual filmy and clinging outfits in a bright chartreuse, was waiting for me in the entry area with a smile on her face that rapidly faded when she saw Pam was with me.

"Sookie, I see that you have brought protection. Can it be that Eric thinks that Claude and I don't know how to keep you safe?" she said with a bit of an edge in her voice.

"Claudine, I can assure you that we know that I'm safe with you. I guess Eric was just being cautious with my traveling and all. Don't take it personally."

Claudine said, "Hello, Pam." with a nod, and then moved even further away.

Sigh. No hugs this trip it seemed.

We walked into the club, which was quite packed. It was evidently ladies night. Claude was dancing and had stripped down to…. oh my. It certainly seemed to be grabbing Pam's attention. I glanced away with a smile. Claude and I had spent a lot of time in close proximity to one another for a photo shoot to jump start his modeling career. He was gorgeous, but he was my cousin, and he played for the other team. Pam didn't mind looking, no matter what team he played for.

"So Claudine, what's up? You said you needed me to talk to one of your dancers?"

Claudine nodded and then glanced at Pam and looked as if she was going to have to change her plans. Pam was still watching Claude's undulations with bated breath.

"The dancer is Shelly, and she's in the office. I guess we'll have to find a more spacious place to talk to her, though."

"So what's the deal with this Shelly?" I asked, curious if this was more intrigue. I could tell vaguely from Claudine that there were no murders this time, so that much was good. The last favor was asked after the murder of Claudine and Claude's sister, Claudia. That time I'd interviewed three suspects in their home. After discovering the culprit, they had ended up owning Hooligan's. Claudine worked a day job at Dillards and was managing Hooligans part time, with Claude.

"Well," said Claudine pausing in our walk toward the office, "I'm hoping I don't have to fire her. She's been one of our best dancers. But… well, you'll see for yourself."

Claudine motioned that Pam and I should wait just outside the hall area as she went back to the office. That way Pam would be out in a more open area, reducing her proximity to Claudine in a confined space.

Claudine emerged from the office with a mid-twenties, blonde haired, green-eyed woman. She was scantily clad and had a great figure and she would have really been stunning if she didn't look so miserable.

"Let's go back to the dressing room area and I'll try to clear everyone out," Claudine said.

The four of us headed to a back stage area and Claudine asked all the dancers to either step outside by the backstage door, or to head out to the front and mingle. Most chose the opportunity for more tips and went into the club. Claude soon joined us and looked at Pam with thinly veiled dislike. He pulled on a dark blue shirt and black sweatpants.

"Hi, Claude," I said. "You remember my _good friend_ Pam?"

"Unfortunately, I believe I do," he said with a tone I could have done without.

Pam ignored him and moved off to one side of the rather large dressing area, which had a long series of mirrors along one wall with a long dressing table below. The room was littered with props and costumes and makeup. Some of the props looked rather interesting, to say the least. And there was a snake in a glass terrarium. I'd heard of dancers using snakes. Ugh! I didn't quite want to think about that…

Claudine sat Shelly down in a chair she pulled out from the dressing table. Now that we were in a well lit area, I could see Claudine's problem. Shelly had cuts of about an inch to two inches long, in various stages of healing, in multiple places on her body- on her throat, on her arms, and one that appeared to extend from her cleavage area onto her breast. This was certainly unattractive and not what you want a stripper to look like.

"Shelly, this is my cousin Sookie. She's going to talk to you, okay? We need to know why you keep getting all these cuts, because it doesn't look nice for when you dance." Claudine looked at me and shook her head sadly.

I took off my coat and draped it over a nearby chair. Then I pulled over another chair, sat down and looked at Shelly. She was really such a pretty woman, but these cuts… well, they looked just awful. Sizing up the whole situation, I just didn't think that she could have inflicted them upon herself. Someone was hurting this woman. But who?

"Hi Shelly, I'm Sookie." I said gently. I extended my hand to her and when she reached out to shake it, I clasped both my hands around her. "Do you mind if I just hold your hand while we chat a bit?"

She shook her head and looked slightly teary eyed.

"Shelly, you have all these cuts. But to me, it just looks like you couldn't have done this to yourself. Can you tell me if someone did this to you?"

She started to withdraw her hand from me and looked away. Claudine stepped forward, bent down and sort of gently braced Shelly into the chair, and looked her in the eyes.

"Shelly, Sookie's going to try to help you, okay? If someone is hurting you, we have to try to help you. You're a good dancer. I want to keep you. I don't want someone hurting my employees, do you understand?"

I smiled at Shelly, and my heart warmed to Claudine. Fairies may be vain at times, but Claudine had a big heart. She must be a good boss, I thought, to have called me in to talk to Shelly rather than simply letting her go.

Shelly nodded and large tears started rolling down her face. She relaxed her arm so that her hand was smoothly held in mine. I felt fear mixed with shame from her. I could sense that she was very afraid of revealing something. I picked up the sense of a man and… and these cuts were in other places, more intimate places, as well. It was hard to lock on to her thoughts right now. She was very afraid.

"Shelly, you don't have to tell me anything, okay. I can feel things from some people, without their even speaking. So if someone told you that you couldn't talk about this, if they threatened to hurt you, you won't really be breaking that promise to them, alright?"

More tears, but she gripped my hand a little bit with hers. And then she stared me straight in the eyes, as if she really wanted someone to help her.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

A/N- This story takes place in mid February, after "From the Beginning" and "Sookie's Revelation" but before "The Gamble."

**Friendship**

III.

I pushed my way into her mind and found a swirl of emotions not unlike those of a frightened animal. Some of the images were confusing, disjointed. There were missing pieces in the narrative. It was as if something had tampered with her thoughts… as if… Wait a minute! I had seen something like this once before, about two years ago. The pattern of her thoughts was similar to that waitress, Ginger, who had been glammed by Long Shadow. It was the only thing I'd ever seen that had this type of signature.

"It's a vampire. A vampire has glammed her," I said in an incredulous whisper. Pam, who had been leaning on the dressing table on the other side of the dressing room, stood up and leaned a little closer to our group.

A sob escaped Shelly, punctuating the truth of my assessment.

But why on earth would a vampire be _cutting_ a human, I wondered?

I pushed in further, trying to see around the edges of the confusing pastiche of images in Shelly's mind. A small sharp knife, no sharp teeth…. This vampire had been… defanged? But by whom and for what reason? I tried to find an image, any image, that would clue me in. I tried going back further in her memories, to see how she had met this man, for I knew it was a man. He was using her in more ways than one. Further and further back I pushed, until two weeks ago, in another bar where she worked part time, I saw the face of….

Mickey!? The same Mickey who had tormented and used Tara! I gasped in shock and I looked over at Pam.

"Pam, it's Mickey! _Salome's_ Mickey. The one that Eric sent back to Salome for using my friend Tara so badly. He's here in Monroe and he's cutting her because someone broke his fangs!"

Shelly just completely collapsed into a sobbing heap.

Pam had her phone out and was already calling Eric. Monroe was part of Eric's territory. In fact, Eric now held all of northern Louisiana, after Area 5 had been redrawn by Felipe and his crew. Mickey had no business being in the area without Eric's knowledge and it was very apparent that he was feeding on Shelly without her desire for him to do so. He had been glamming her repeatedly to keep her from fighting back and trying to get away.

Pam looked over at me and whispered "He's calling Salome…".

Salome was Mickey's sire. I had to say that she had bad taste in who she chose to grant immortality. I had heard that sometimes vamps personalities did not quite follow their human ones and that there was an element of unpredictability when you turned someone. Salome had made herself an abusive monster in my book.

I reached out to put my arms around Shelly. She was just shaking and sobbing. What kind of bastard was this guy? He wasn't even making the slightest attempt to clean her up and heal her after feeding, I reflected. And he knew she was a dancer. He was leaving the marks all over her. How was she supposed to work? I realized, with a chill, that based on my previous encounter with Mickey he likely didn't even care. From what I'd seen she clearly hadn't been willing to be with him after the first night with the man. He kept coming back for more. Of course, she worked in a club with fairies, and I imagined that the scent clung to her. I just shuddered to think of what she had been living through for the past two weeks.

I glanced at Pam who was now nodding as she was talking in a low voice on the phone. She glanced over at me and said,

"Eric says that Salome broke his fangs as part of his punishment for avoiding her summons last year. She didn't get him back until late November… he's only been out for about three weeks."

I winced. Geez, I wondered what else she'd done over the past two months. I remembered that laugh of hers. I can't say I felt that sorry for him. And I knew like everything else on a vamp that his teeth would grow back. But what he'd been doing to feed was hideous. He could have just had True Blood, but no. That clearly wasn't this guy's style.

Shelly began shaking uncontrollably and began a soft whimper. I tried to comfort her, but she kept on shaking.

Suddenly, the backstage door that had been propped open swung open wider and there, framed in the doorway, was Mickey, eyes blazing. He stared at the scene and looked at me with unconcealed hatred as soon as he clapped eyes on me.

"Get out!" I shouted at Claudine and Claude, who needed no further persuading. They went back into the club.

I held my ground, with my arms around Shelly, both of us trembling. Mickey had tried to rape me the last time I'd seen him. He'd tried to break my neck or jaw by backhanding me hard enough to knock me off my feet. Eric had been with me that time but was injured and slow to respond. I trembled but didn't move. Clearly Shelly had given him prior permission to enter the dressing area and she was not in good enough shape to rescind it now.

Mickey launched himself at me. But Pam was too fast for him. In one quick movement she picked up a large makeup brush from the dressing table and took off at him and just as Mickey got within a foot of being on top of us, she impaled him on its long, pointed handle. He let out a horrible scream and then slowly began to dissolve and flake.

Pam calmly brushed off a few flakes and went back to retrieve her dropped cellular phone.

"Eric? Oh yes, I'm fine. So sweet of you to ask. Tell Salome that I solved her problem. Yes, yes, Eric, of course, Sookie is fine. No, she's just scared. She's shaking. He didn't lay a hand on her, don't worry. Well, I think she needs a new pair of jeans. There were… some spatters, if you take my meaning. I hope we don't owe Salome anything for this one because let me tell you, he wasn't worth a red cent. Ugly, vulgar looking man. I really don't know what she was thinking, turning him. Yes, we'll be back in a hour or so. Maybe a bit more. Sookie seems to think my driving is a little … No, no, the car is fine, Eric. We're all _fine_."

Claudine and Claude had come back in cautiously. It had all been over so fast. Claudine looked with distaste at the mess all over the dressing room floor. Claude quickly edged past Pam and closed the backstage door.

With a snap of her fingers Claudine produced a deep blue beverage in a fluted glass. She pressed it into the sobbing Shelly's hands.

"Nepenthe," she said by way of explanation as she glanced at me. "Are you alright Sookie? I take it you had a prior experience with him?"

"He was a very horrible person, Claudine. He had also abused one of my friends in Bon Temps and Eric sent him back to his sire. She had him for a while, but released him. I guess he just moved on to another town after that," I said, swallowing that bitter recollection of his abuse of Tara.

After drinking the blue drink, Shelly appeared to fall into a sort of smiling slumber and slumped down in her chair. The glass rolled onto the floor and promptly popped.

Pam caught my eye and said brusquely, "We should go. You did what you came for, and we should get back."

Claudine and Claude stood side by side near me as I stood up.

Claudine bent her head down and kissed my cheek. "Are you sure you don't want me to whip something up for you? You still look shaken."

"No, no, I'm fine Claudine. I guess… I guess I should be shaken, right? I mean, if Pam hadn't been here, I really… I don't want to think what might have happened." I shivered.

Claude laughed at me. "Sookie, Claudine and I could have ripped that one apart at the seams, especially if he had been defanged. But it was Pam's watch and it seemed like the best option to let her handle it, his being her kind and all. We let her do her work, at which she seems to be," and here he nodded at Pam, with a raised eyebrow, in acknowledgement "rather adept." This was quite some speech for Claude, in my experience. Saying something positive about another person and a vampire at that? Wow.

Pam smiled broadly.

I looked at Shelly. "I hope she'll be alright. Will you be able to heal her, Claudine? She's really been through hell."

Claudine smiled. "Don't worry Sookie. She'll be well taken care of."

Claude helped me on with my coat. Claudine and Claude hugged me goodbye lightly and then Claude picked up Shelly to take her back to the office, while Claudine looked at getting someone to clean up the vile mess on the floor of the dressing room. How on earth would they explain that, I wondered.

As Pam and I walked out into the frigid nighttime air, she said to me,

"Wait until I tell Eric that you actually admitted he was right to send me with you. He's going to be so delighted. You know maybe I can get my fun going the other direction, eh? Now I can get a lot of mileage out of Eric being right." She laughed.

I stopped in my tracks.

"Pam, you saved my life back there. It's not about Eric being right. It's not a joke. Mickey would have killed me after the last time. You killed a vampire because of me, Pam. You saved my _life_."

"And happily so, my little telepathic friend. Remember that I'm under the direct orders of our King to protect you."

"Pam, I don't think you would have let Mickey harm me whether Eric or even Felipe said to protect me or not. In fact, I know that Felipe didn't even cross your mind."

"Sookie, I told you that my mind was off limits. Really." She looked at me with a glare.

"Pam, I don't need to be a mind reader to know a good friend when I see one, okay? You wouldn't have let him touch me. Thank you. I'm really grateful."

"You didn't move when he went for you. You wouldn't leave her."

I just stared at her. "I couldn't leave her. I can't just leave people, Pam."

She paused for a moment and then resumed moving toward the car. We got in and began our drive back home.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

A/N- This story takes place in mid February, after "From the Beginning" and "Sookie's Revelation" but before "The Gamble."

**Friendship**

IV.

I was pretty exhausted on the drive back to Shreveport. Pam drove about as fast as she had on the way to Monroe, so we'd be home soon. I was frankly too wrung out to pay much attention to how fast we were going. Pam was quiet. Thoughtful. She hadn't even made any snide remarks about my being vaguely fairy scented.

"Sookie?"

"Mmmm?" I said, feeling a bit sleepy.

"Were you upset that I told Eric that I knew you could read us? Bill told _you_ first, then he told Eric, right? Eric was mad about that."

"No. Pam, I know your allegiance is to Eric, to… your kind. I understood, don't worry. You've told me before, 'vampires first'. I get it."

"If I thought Eric would have harmed you, I don't think I would have told him," she said quietly. She paused for a few seconds. "I can't believe I'm actually verbalizing that." Last fall Pam had told me before we went to the Rhodes summit that she liked me but that her loyalty was to her fellow vampires. This was certainly a turnabout.

I turned to look at Pam, whose eyes were steadfastly on the road. I had wondered if Pam and I would actually get along less well after I became more involved with Eric. She had lost one of her major sources of irking Eric since we were together now. Less fun to be had and my taking up more of Eric's time, so less time for her. And now Eric was acting like all his vamps, including Pam, owed me fealty and respect that I wasn't interested in receiving just because I was their boss's girlfriend. I had worried that the change in the dynamic would erode our friendship. She seemed to have shifted gears on that pretty seamlessly, though.

I knew that Pam really felt I was her friend and that she really trusted me. I had saved her life at Rhodes. Through the few times I'd actually tried to read her I had grasped that she thought perhaps I was saving her secondarily, because of saving Eric, but part of her knew that I would have saved her whether Eric had been there or not. For two hundred years she'd seen no reason _not_ to be 'vampires first' without question. But now, she has a genuine friend, I thought to myself. I chose to be her friend. No bond. No shared blood. No glamour. My allegiance was to my friends and loved ones. I would have chosen to save Pam over quite a few humans I've met. I'd take a real friend over generic "my kind" anytime. Sometimes the boundaries between our own kind and those of our friends and loved ones seemed to blur these days even for Pam.

"Pam, I wasn't bothered by it, okay? Eric and I had spoken about whether you would figure it out and he thought you would because you're so observant of everything. I also understand what you're saying. We're really friends, you and I. And I'm promising you that I never tried digging around in your head for anything other than simple stuff, like just reading what you thought when I showed up at the club and stuff like that. I was only trying to make sure I wasn't causing problems for you, for Eric's business. And… I was really worried that my relationship with Eric was going to change everything with our friendship."

Looking straight ahead, Pam said "Well it has changed everything. Now it's easier to keep you safe without attracting unusual attention, although now we have to keep you even safer. But it's also easier because you're finally willing to do more of what Eric asks you to do, instead of telling him to 'go fly a kite'. Although, I do miss that part." She grinned, eyes still on the road.

"Pam, you're really my best girlfriend. You know, I can really share more of my life with you than any other woman I know? I'm glad nothing changed for the worse in our friendship when I got closer to Eric. It would have made me very sad if it had."

Pam wrinkled her nose. My other "best friend" was Sam and she knew it, since Eric still fumed about it.

"I suppose that you are lumping me into a special category with that shifter boss of yours? Ugh! I'm trying _not_ to be insulted, Sookie. I'll _keep_ trying."

We laughed and drove on into the night.


End file.
